Current Events Projects How do we define an issue in this class? Even if some of the news media have low standards, that does not mean we will: A real current event, development, change, or issue has the following features: it is a story of importance, that affects the lives of real people. It does not involve the lives and times of celebrities, and does not follow the lives, words, pets, mistresses, vacations, rumors, yacht maintenance, or scandals of political figures Stories on politics or politicians must focus on the policies and procedures of lawmaking, and not on the personalities or proclivities of the politicians presenting. Stories that fixate on sick people (murderers, predators, etc.), unless there is something redeeming we can learn, like how to identify that kind of behavior or how to keep ourselves safe, will not be examined. One of the learning goals over the course of the year is to discern reliability, bias, and ‘yellow’ journalism where possible, thus helping us to become better consumers of information and to develop perspective on current events. Here are a list of news websites where you can access mostly responsible journalism (please do not split hairs with me on this, as I know that there are always exceptions J): Bbcnews.com- British Broadcasting Company-great for world news Economist.com-British newspaper with an internationalist, free-market bent Washingtonpost.com-D.C. based newspaper Newyorktimes.com-New York-based newspaper, urban, and social angle Wallstreetjournal.com-newspaper with a business and markets angle Sciencedaily.com- science and technology news Christian Science Monitor-http://www.csmonitor.com/- A compilation of international newspapers is here: http://www.virtourist.com/newspapers/ Local and Regional News: Idaho Statesman: http://www.idahostatesman.com/- Based out of Boise, a land far, far away, yet still inIdaho! Oregonian:http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/- Based out ofWestern Oregon East Oregonian: eonow.com-Eastern Oregonis about as rural as you get (I know, I used to live there) good coverage of forest, land, ranching issues; a good reference to Spokesman Review (Spokane)-spokseman.com-Spokanedaily paper (includesNorth Idahonews) SeattleTimes: seattletimes.nwsource.com I would like all students to choose one of the afformentioned websites and save it as a ‘home page’ on your computer account. I will not accept news for this project that comes from the following sources (for reasons that will become apparent as we explore the nature of the media over the course of the year): Cnn, Fox news, msnbc, or any ‘cable news network’ Entertainment news like People magazine Any ‘blog’ (even if it has a link to a news source) Content from any radio or television talk show or comedy show Any content that levels personal attacks, delivers overt opinion as news Over time, we will examine news sources for bias. The following types of bias will be examined: advertising bias (news that benefits advertisers), political bias (news that promotes political views), corporate conflict bias (is the news source affiliated with a corporation?), sensationalism (overblown, exaggerated), mainstream bias (reporting what everyone else reports because everyone else is reporting it), ‘low cost’ reporting bias (lots of stories that are cheap to report on), propaganda (reporting desgined to make you thinka certain way), and others. You may have an opportunity to interview for yourself someone who is involved personally in an issue. This is allowed and encouraged
Current Events Project
How do we define an issue in this class?
Even if some of the news media have low standards, that does not mean we will:
A real current event, development, change, or issue has the following features:
it is a story of importance, that affects the lives of real people. It does not involve the lives and times of celebrities, and does not follow the lives, words, pets, mistresses, vacations, rumors, yacht maintenance, or scandals of political figures
Stories on politics or politicians must focus on the policies and procedures of lawmaking, and not on the personalities or proclivities of the politicians presenting.
Stories that fixate on sick people (murderers, predators, etc.), unless there is something redeeming we can learn, like how to identify that kind of behavior or how to keep ourselves safe, will not be examined.
One of the learning goals over the course of the year is to discern reliability, bias, and ‘yellow’ journalism where possible, thus helping us to become better consumers of information and to develop perspective on current events.
Here are a list of news websites where you can access mostly responsible journalism (please do not split hairs with me on this, as I know that there are always exceptions J):
Bbcnews.com- British Broadcasting Company-great for world news
Economist.com-British newspaper with an internationalist, free-market bent
Washingtonpost.com-D.C. based newspaper
Newyorktimes.com-New York-based newspaper, urban, and social angle
Wallstreetjournal.com-newspaper with a business and markets angle
Sciencedaily.com- science and technology news
Christian Science Monitor-http://www.csmonitor.com/-
A compilation of international newspapers is here:
http://www.virtourist.com/newspapers/
Local and Regional News:
Idaho Statesman: http://www.idahostatesman.com/- Based out of Boise, a land far, far away, yet still in Idaho!
Oregonian: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/- Based out of Western Oregon
East Oregonian: eonow.com- Eastern Oregon is about as rural as you get (I know, I used to live there) good coverage of forest, land, ranching issues; a good reference to
Spokesman Review (Spokane)-spokseman.com- Spokane daily paper (includes North Idaho news)
Seattle Times: seattletimes.nwsource.com
I would like all students to choose one of the afformentioned websites and save it as a ‘home page’ on your computer account.
I will not accept news for this project that comes from the following sources (for reasons that will become apparent as we explore the nature of the media over the course of the year):
Cnn, Fox news, msnbc, or any ‘cable news network’
Entertainment news like People magazine
Any ‘blog’ (even if it has a link to a news source)
Content from any radio or television talk show or comedy show
Any content that levels personal attacks, delivers overt opinion as news
Over time, we will examine news sources for bias. The following types of bias will be examined: advertising bias (news that benefits advertisers), political bias (news that promotes political views), corporate conflict bias (is the news source affiliated with a corporation?), sensationalism (overblown, exaggerated), mainstream bias (reporting what everyone else reports because everyone else is reporting it), ‘low cost’ reporting bias (lots of stories that are cheap to report on), propaganda (reporting desgined to make you thinka certain way), and others.
You may have an opportunity to interview for yourself someone who is involved personally in an issue. This is allowed and encouraged